Mrs. Olarenwaju Oladeji was in the business of baking doughnuts and other snacks in Ibadan, a city of about 1.3 million people in South-west Nigeria. She wanted to diversify and trade in second-hand clothing but had no money to start, and lack of credit history or collateral for loans made it impossible for her to access fund from any bank or financial institution.
In 2007, she met a credit officer on mobilisation from CGEE who encouraged her to join the organisation and form a savings and loan group.
With about 25 others, she formed a group named victory Group, and through it was able to secure her first loan of N10,000, which helped her to travel to Cotonou, Republic of Benin, to buy second-hand clothes for sale.
Overtime, Oladeji has had other additional loans to expand her business and all her children are now enrolled in school. In her words: “I will recommend CGEE to anyone that wants microfinance support”.
Mrs. Kehinde Ogunjobi is the leader of Temidayo Group. In her words: “Since I joined CGEE in 2000 I have experienced a good turnaround in both my business and my life. Before I got to know about CGEE, I used to sell clothes, but on a very small scale but now, I have been able to grow the business and send all my children to higher institutions of learning. Through CGEE, I have been truly empowered. My advice to other women is that when they have access to financial services like this one provided by CGEE, they should utilize it very well and not divert the money to something else and then hope that God will help them pay”.
Ogunjobi and Oladeji are some of the thousands of success stories to have come out of CGEE women empowerment programme.
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